Airship.



APPLICA TION FILE I -25| I915.

WI" J Y '"'?""""""WW 1. BUTCHER. AIRS Patented Oct. 9, 1917;

2 SHEETS-SHEET l. M. BUTCHER.

AIRSH'IP. APPLICATIDN FILED M115. 1915.

21,242,766, -'Patenbed 00%. 9.1917.

I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1' {h I l ii UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

JAMES M. BUTCHER, OFCHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

To all whom it may concern: 7 7

Be it known that I, JAMES M.- BUTCHER,

a citizen of 'the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Ilhnois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Airships; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skille in the art to which it appertains'to make and use the same.

. a conveyance by the reaction upon a surrounding fluid of portions of said fluid projected in jets orvortexes at considerable ressures against other portions of the fluid. ore particularly, my invention aims to provlde airships and submarines with means whereby the raising and lowering may be accomplished independently of planes, vanes or rudders, there I tially vertical ascent or descent of such conveyances and avoiding both the bulkiness and the fragility of the p%:ies heretofore used for transforming a hoj'zon'tal into a partially vertical movement: Other objects are to provide propellers upon conveyances with means for checking a radially outward movement of'the surrounding fluid'by the propellers, meansfor causing the action of each propeller to compress the actuated fluid considerably befpre the latteris discharged, means for affording an impact base of considerable sizefor the discharged fluid, and means for'automatically preventing a rapid movement ofthe fluid past the propellers in the opposite direction. Further objects will a pear from the following specification and om the accompanying drawings, in

, which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a four-propeller airship embodymg my"invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section through ,the same along the line a r-a of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of a five-propeller airship embodying my invention,

Fig. 21' isa side elevation of the embodiment of Fig. 1. I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 25, 1915. SeriaI No. 57,686. I

y permitting a substan- Patented Oct. 9, 1917.

Fig. .5 is an enlarged fragmentary'view of a propeller, showing portions of two of the blades and the closure vane interposed between the same.

Fig. 6 is fragmentary vertical section through Fig. 4 showing the arrangement of the driving mechanism.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view showing the use of a parachute as an alternative for the safety flaps shown in Figs. 2 and 5.

While my invention may be applied with substantially equal advantages and effectiveness to widely varying .types of crafts moving ineither air or water (including aeroplanes, dirigible balloons, motor boats, submarines and automobiles) it is particularly adapted for use upon airships and is thus shown in the accompanying drawings, al-

though I do not wish to be limited to the embodiments or arrangements disclosedherewith; In each of the said types of crafts it has heretofore been customary to use ro-, .pellers freely immersed in the actuated fl uid, these propellers being usually of a helical type and laterally exposed so that the action upon the surrounding fluid resolves itself partly into a thrust axially of the propellers and partly into thrusts radially outwardof the latter. Owing to this division of direc-. tions, the power of each propeller is usually only partly utilized for the desired propulsion, this being particularly so in air where the fluid partlcles intermingle more easily than in water. To reduce this waste of power, I surround each ropeller with a casing extending rearwar y thereof or in the direction inwhich the fluid is moved by the propeller, each casing being prefera 1y composed of two frusto-comcal portions joined to each other at their smaller ends. For aerial navigation, I preferably use both vertical and horizontal propellers, so as to obtain both the vertical and the horizontal movement by the reaction upon the surrounding air of'the air moved by the respective propellers. For example, Fig. 1 shows an airship havingga body 1 carrying two propellers 2 mounted on vertical shafts 3 and two pro ellers i mounted on horizontal shafts 5, t e respective shafts being all driven by a common engine 6 disposed under the aeronauts seat 7 and belng controlled by suitable clutches not shown in the draw-' have an oppositely tapering extension 9 at tached to its smaller end, and each casing is supported by suitable frames 10 secured to the body 1 of the airship. Each propeller preferably has its blades tapered at their ends (as shown in Fig. 2) so as to barely clear the interior of the tapering casing 8 and also preferably has a tapering flap or vane 11 pivoted to the forward edge of each blade as shown in Fig. 5.

When the propeller of Fig. 2 is set in motion with the blades rotating in the direction in which they would tend to screw themselves upwardly into the air, this rotation will draw air into the casing-8 and to partially rotate this air within the casing. There, the air will encounter the friction of the casing and owing also to the downwardly diminishing diameter of the casing 8, this air will be considerably compressed by the time it is discharged from the lower end of the casing 8. When thus discharged at considerable pressure and with a velocity depending upon the speed at which the propeller is rotating, the impact of the emitted air against the ground (when the airship is standin still) or against the outer air (when t e airship is aloft) will create a reaction causing the propeller 2, and therefore the body to which the latter is connected, to rise in the air. By placing two such propellers forward and aft upon the body of the air ship and rotating them simultaneously and uniformly, the conveyance can readily be raised horizontallyyor, if the, craft is in the air and the speed of rotation of'the propellers is reduced bel'owthe point required for the lifting, the airship gradually descend. Likewise, by running one of the two propellers 2 at higher speed than the other, the airship may be raised obliquely without the use of planes, vanes or rudders. So also, by running the propellers 4 either synchronously or otherwise, the air ship may be moved horizontally either in a straight line or in curves controlled by the relative speed .of the two propellers.

However, while ll am thus able to effect vertical and horizontal movements independently of each other entirely by means of the propellers, 1 preferably also provide my craft with independently controlled lifting vanes or horizontal rudders 12 and with a rear rudder 13, each of which may easily be manipulated by means familiar in aeronautical "practice and 'not shown in the drawings. 1 also preferably drive the propellers 2 in opposite directions (as, for example, by means of the shafts and bevel gears shown in Fig. 1), so that they will counteract each other in any rotational effeet upon the body of the craft.

lit will be obvious from the drawings that each of the casings, while freely admitting ,vee

the air to the corresponding propeller, laterally houses the latter and causes it to concentrate the air in a jet. Thus, each casing practically forms a nozzle within which air is compressed and from which air is ejected with a vortex motion and under considerable pressure against the adjacent outer air. To give each jet a sufliciently large impactbase, each casing 8 may have a relatively short and rapidly flaring extension 9 secured to its nozzle end. However, I do not wish to be limited to this arrangement, nor to the proportions or other details as herein disclosed, nor to the pivoted safety flaps 11 carried by the propeller blades. When each propeller is rotating, the impact of the entering air against these flaps will swing the latter back under the blades to which they are pivoted, as shown in dotted lines in Fig.

5, so that they will be substantially out of the way. However, when the propeller stops rotating, the flaps 11 will drop by gravity into the position of Fig. 5 and will be held there by the upward pressure of air passing through the casing 8 in case a disabled on gine causes the airship to fall. Gonsequently, air will only be able to pass through the vertical tubes as fast as the same can seep through the relatively small openings.

between the periphery of the blades and the adjacent parts of the casings, thus impeding the descent of the craft in case of accidents.

While I have described and pictured my invention as applied to a craft movable in air, it will be obvious that the action of the casings and flaps will be substantially the samefor a watercraft, so that these features might be applied with equal advantages to submarines or other boats. So also, it will be evident that the number, size and arrangement of both the vertical and the horizontal propellers might be varied greatly without departing from the spirit of my invention. For example, the diagram of Fig Walt So also, Fig. 7 shows a cylindrical casing housing a propeller and a parachute M, which latter-might serve as a substitute for the safety flaps 11 in substantially closing the casing so as to prevent a rapid upward movement of air past the propeller.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an airship, the combination with a casing comprising a long and straightsided tapering tube and a relatively shorttapering tube adjoined to the smaller end thereof, of a propeller disposed within the larger end of the first named tube, and movable flaps carried respectively by the propeller blades and normally closing the gaps be: tween successive blades to afiord a closure substantially flush with the larger end of the first named tube, said flaps so disposed as to be moved out of their said closure positions by the normal rotation of the propeller.

5 2. In a conveyance, theeombination with,

an actuating Helical propeller, of a casing housing the same and comprising an acute- 1 angled straight-sided'tube. tapering from a portion disposed laterally of the propeller,

' and an obtuse-angled and relatively shorter--. 1o

straight-sided tube united at its smaller end to the smallerend of the aforesaid tube.

I JAMES M. BUTCHER. 

